Today is yet another day of flawless, on-time attendance: Chris (Dojango Sangaree), Chuck (Arnoux Urag), Paul (Marik) and Tim (Antok of the Storm Tribe). Bruce whines like a murdered weasel, but he ends up being in charge anyway.
The characters get a quick jump into Aeldrine when Marik makes up a flying carpet and wafts everyone out through the gangway and up high to take a look around. They are able to spot a city some distance away, perhaps 40 kilometers as the sorcerer flies. Marik does his best to identify a good route to the city, then flies down to the assembling merchant groups to try and sell the information to someone without easy access to a magician. The characters notice that there are at least three other flying magicians among the travelers, all of whom seem to be doing the same sort of thing.
Antok of the Storm Tribe is uninterested in mere cities. He prefers to fix his attention back upon Yaggo's Boat, trying to get a look at the rigging. He is easily able to ignore the Maelstrom's grasp upon his mind. He sees that the forward parts of the rigging look like a fan skeletal fingers reaching out from the edge of the sky. They seem a lot further away than simple distance would tend to suggest. He is able to see tiny dots crawl along some of the fingers, but cannot see enough to determine what (or how big) they are.
Back on the ground, the characters work on the hard business of selling information. They find that there are three groups that appear to be good potential customers:
Marik starts with the paurkend, offering to sell for 500 clavars. He gets underbid right away by Lemway, a lithe Faian human magician who swoops down with an offer of only 20 clavars. Marik quickly decides that this market isn't worth the trouble, and turns to trying to sell cargo transportation. That doesn't work out very well either, but in the process he manages to persuade both Ogomo ro Opek and Okopto Wulk to pay for quick personal transportation to the city. Ogomo pays 100 clavars, while Okopto pays a lordly 200. Marik calculates that he can get both of them plus the characters to the city in only four hours, through a series of rapid jumps interspersed with rest stops.
The characters get a good view of the city as they approach from the air. They are able to see three distinct districts. The central city is an impressive vista of shining limestone temples and buildings adorned with colorful murals and surrounded with a high limestone wall. A dozen clusters of wooden buildings linger up against the stone walls, and it is obvious that far more people live in these areas than in the city center. Finally, a hillside overlooking the city is strewn with something that looks like nothing so much as a huge carnival.
The characters decide to head for the carnival, reasoning that the people there are likely to be traders and travelers waiting for the arrival of Yaggo's Boat. They land in a cleared area, then start looking around. Both Ogomo and Okotpo quickly manage to lose themselves in the crowd, clearly eager to hunt down potential trading opportunities.
The characters eventually manage to hook themselves up with Leopold, a local trader (albeit one from a nation far away) who speaks terrible Market Tongue. He is camped out in a huge, ramshackle tent packed with crates of goods. Leopold has a large number of local delicacies to show the characters, particularly pickled ostrich eggs. The characters accept a plate of sliced pickled eggs, and ask him questions about flowers. It turns out that he doesn't know a thing about flowers or where they can be found in the local area. He is crestfallen to hear that the characters have no money and no trade goods. He perks up a bit when the characters tell him that a large number of traders will arrive within two days. He bids the characters a friendly goodbye. Dojango tries buying a bottle of pickled ostrich eggs from him, but finds that he won't accept clavars. Dojango feels bad for the guy because he'd been so helpful and hospitable to the characters in a place where so many other folk obviously wouldn't have been, so he leaves him a couple of red clavars.
After leaving Leopold's tent, the characters circulate through the area, trying to get a feel for the local conditions. They notice that there are several magicians in the carnival area offering translation and language-borrowing services. At the moment, business is slow and the magicians are largely offering their services for free, but the characters sense that things will be different in a couple of days. The characters are able to learn a number of local tidbits within a few hours of their arrival:
Equipped with this insight, the characters discuss what kind of information they can sell. They realize that Yaggo has been here a half-dozen times in the last dozen Voyages, so many of the folk currently staying at the carnival will already have a reasonable idea what to expect. They eventually decide that they can tell people that the traders from Yaggo's Boat will be looking for large amounts of iron ore.
Antok points out that he really doesn't care what the group does to earn money: "I want a couple of those iron panthers. They're really neat!" Dojango Sangaree rather dismissively responds, "You just want to put them down your shorts." Antok fires back, "My social life isn't you business. I also want a couple for my nipples"
The characters decide to set up shop and sell information and magical services. Marik does an augury to determine the length of the stay, he gets an answer of about 70 days.
The characters look around for someone who can rent them some space, finally settling on a fellow named Aechaf al-Batief, who appears to have a brisk business going selling wine and food. Aechaf tells the characters (with some difficulty) that he is from the Khetaf Empire, which is south of Sush. He explains that the city of Jala-am-Afteg is the nearest Khetaf stronghold, though he comes from farther south than that. He also tells the characters quite a bit about the world of Aeldrine, from the fringes on the edge to the three Darks and the Fangstones in the center.
The characters are particularly interested to hear what Aechaf has to say about the Darks, massively deep bodies of water that block the way to the Fangstones and the narrow Shallow around them. He tells them that the three known Darks are the Orou Sarreine (Reaching Dark), Great Sarreine (Hungry Dark) and Lesser Sarreine (Deep Dark), but that other Darks are known to have been active at the surface before. He explains that the Darks are more like living creatures than mere bodies of water, and provides the further thought that the typhoons and tsunamis that emerge from the Mouth in the Fangstones are actually immature Darks, cast out to survive among their bigger brethren as best they can. The successful ones dive deep down and become large, eventually becoming large enough to rise back to the surface. The characters eventually decide that it is enough to know that ships passing across the Darks normally don't make it all the way. Dojango speaks for the group when he says, "Let's not go there"
At this point, Aechaf asks: "What can you do for me?" The characters initially offer to sell information and magical services, giving Aechaf a cut of the take in exchange for food and a place to stay. This deal is eventually whittled down to a simple exchange of goods, with living space thrown in on the side. Marik demonstrates that he is able to manufacture 900 liters of beer in a single 10-hour time period (given a sufficiently massive quantity of raw materials), albeit at the cost of some 3600 castings of the Ferment spell (NB to Marik: in theory, there would have been some 16 critical failures rolled during this incredible marathon. Even a lenient referee could be justified in inflicting some pretty severe damage to a magician who tries this trick often). Meanwhile, Antok manufactures a total of 120 liters of ice, to accompany the beer. Aechaf pays each of them 20 panthers for their work.
While Antok and Marik chant and bespell their hearts out, Dojango picks up a very respectable 10 gazelles selling information to passers-by.
Arnoux Urag is less successful in his endeavours. He spends the day looking for drunks with money in their pockets to roll. He finds that while there are plenty of drunks, there is also an organized gang of ruffians who have already staked out this particular racket as their turf. Caught red-handed, he decides to retreat back to Aechaf's tent with his skin intact.
The characters are lounging about in Aechaf's tent contemplating their next move (and making fun of Arnoux's bruises) when Okopto Wulf reappears. Okopto is in high spirits, explaining that he's found all manner of good deals already. His interest in the characters is somewhat different. He shows them a rotund vegetable and explains that it is a naurur bulb, a magical plant that restores fatigue (short-term loss only). He says that he managed to find them at an herbalist's shop in the city. He has already purchased every bulb he could find, and has learned that there is a hermit living out on a hill to the north who cultivates the things, and who is reputed to have bushels of them available. Okopto wants the characters to accompany him and his bausker bearers to the hermit's retreat so he can trade for the bulbs. He offers them a 20% cut in exchange.
The characters admit that they are interested in plants (albeit different ones), and suggest simply trying to gather them in the wild instead. Okopto nixes that idea, telling them that wild naurur have long since been gathered into oblivion. Eventually, the characters agree to his offer, but Dojango insists that he have a chance to talk to Okopto's herbalist first. Okopto is initially unwilling to give them the herbalist's name, but he relents under merciless pressure. He gives Dojango directions to the man's shop in one of the villages.
Dojango finds the herbalist's shop without any trouble, and arranges to speak to him with the services of a passing language mage (at a cost of one panther). The herbalist is none too happy to see even more foreigners at his door, but proves willing to talk as long as he thinks it might make the characters go away.
The herbalist generally backs up Okopto's story about the naurur bulbs, and reassures the characters that the hermit isn't violent, just shy. He doesn't offer any false hopes about simple negotiations, though: he says that the hermit is extremely difficult to deal with. He also answers the characters' questions about the blue flowers the Red Tower magician Gullug wanted them to gather, telling them that the flowers are widespread in a valley two days' walk south of Thunafel.
Once again, Dojango's great heart makes itself known: he leaves the herbalist several gazelles, even though it is obvious that the herbalist just wants the characters to go away.
The characters set out early the next morning, armed to the teeth. Antok makes a point of casting Continual Light spells upon everyone's spear heads, "just in case." They are joined by Okopto and his thirty bauskers (all of them armed with daggers). They are guided by a local youth. The characters' confidence falls a bit when Okopto admits that the local guide hasn't actually ever seen the hermit before, and was hired mostly because he knew enough Market Tongue to act as a translator.
The journey goes normally enough for much of the morning. The group follows along the path of a mud patch that resolves itself into a small stream some distance uphill of the Thunafel carnival (the local guide explains that the stream used to go all the way down the hill, but that it got smashed into mud by the tromping feet of thousands of foreigners). The bauskers pass the time by singing a traditional bausker family hymn that crosses "1000 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" with a geneology chart. Characters sensitive to high-pitched noises hold their heads until Antok breaks it up by singing an old Dost favorite, "Run From the Ice-Yassel, Oh Brave Hrundig!"
Okopto tells the characters that their route will follow along the stream until they reach a confluence with another stream, at which point they climb the nearest hill and look for a pair of joined hills. According to the herbalist's directions, the hermit lives upon the rightward of the two joined hills.
Towards the end of the morning, one of the bauskers runs forward to tell the characters that a bausker is missing. The characters look around for a while, and find nothing. They informally theorize that the critter either wandered off or was taken by an extraordinarily quiet animal, and set a more vigorous watch. They also put an end to the singing, reasoning that if twenty-nine bauskers caterwauling in Naska isn't enough to enrage the local fauna, then the Dost iceman's howling certainly is.
Real trouble comes just after the group (particularly Antok, who has a good throwing arm) help the bauskers to cross a substantial (3-hex) stream on the last hill. One of the bauskers near the end of the column is borne down by something lithe and fierce that emerges from the underbrush. Dojango rushes forward to rescue the bausker, driving the animal away. The bausker shrieks out, "It bit my face!" Antok and Marik come on the scene with healing magic, but not before the local guide has a chance to see the bite marks.
The guide exclaims, "Dire foosa! Dire foosa attack!"
The players exclaim, "What was Bruce smoking when he wrote this?"
The group continues on, slowly and carefully. A few minutes later, Antok (who had been on point) discovers that he is no longer able to speak. He uses sign language to communicate his distress to the other characters and to Okopto. They decide to continue on to the hermit's refuge, as they estimate it to be within a half-hour's march.
It is at this point that a group of six dire foosas attack the group. A ferocious battle ensues, ending with four bauskers and five foosas slain. The characters manage to emerge largely unscathed. Marik demonstrates that his combination of Glue and Create Fire is tremendously effective as he traps one foosa and roasts another. The one disconcerting aspect to the encounter is the fact that someone throws a series of spells at the characters, particularly at Marik. The characters suspect that the responsible party is not one of the foosas, though they are unable to determine exactly who it is.
After the dust settles, the characters rest for thirty minutes. The rest period ends when Marik discovers that he is suddenly unable to speak as well. The characters decide that they'd better proceed forward with all haste.
The characters find the hermit's refuge near the top of the hill. The place is a large, decaying building that might have once been a shrine or a meeting hall. The walls are still continuous (mostly), but half of the ceiling has fallen in.
Seeing nobody about, Antok takes the bull by the horns and heads into the building. He is easily able to see a pile of bags towards the back, apparently full of naurur bulbs. He also becomes painfully aware that a stalwart example of metal statuary has detached itself from the wall and is approaching him with a heavy-looking mace in one hand.
Antok runs out of the building as if he were being chased by a seven-foot metal statue. A moment later, the seven-foot metal statue follows him.
Marik thinks quickly, and slows the statue to a crawl with a well-placed Hinder spell. Antok, Dojango and Arnoux regroup and face the creature. Antok and Dojango hold the flanks with their spears, while Arnoux readies his rapier and cloak in the center. The bauskers on the sidelines start taking bets on how long it will take Arnoux to fence himself to death. Arnoux proves his doubters wrong: he waits for the statue to raise it's mace, then deftly whips his cloak out, completely entangling the weapon. He then discovers that the statue is phenomenally strong, and elects to give up possession of his cloak to avoid being flung high overhead with it.
At this rather dramatic point, the much ballyhooed hermit enters the scene. He bears a remarkable resemblance to a drooling, foaming madman. He staggers into the scene and attempts to throw regrettable spells at Marik, who deftly resists. The other characters take note of this and turn about to charge the hermit, totally ignoring the ferocious but slow-moving iron statue. The hermit proves more than a match for the first of them, deftly using an Iron Arm spell to deflect harm. The rest of the characters point out the great drawback of Iron Arm as they stab him over and over and over again.
Once the hermit has been reduced to bloody gibbets, the characters are somewhat disappointed to find that the statue continues moving. It is, however, not overwhelmingly bright, and it proves a fairly straightforward matter for Antok to lead it off across the hillside, allowing everyone else to run into the hermitage and make off with fifteen bags full of naurur bulbs. Each bag contains some 20 bulbs and is a reasonable load for a bausker.
While the bauskers make off with the naurur bulbs, the characters loot the hermit's body, coming up with a 6-point Powerstone upon a necklace and a bottle of what proves to be brandy.
The session ends with the characters marching back to Thunafel with Okopto Wulf and his twenty-five surviving bauskers. Each character gains four experience points.
As a fine postscript, when Dojango reaches Thunafel he makes a beeline to the herbalist's shop. He throws the hermit's severed head onto the herbalist's table and screams at the man, "You bloody asshole! He was very violent!"
Antok spends 4 points increasing Judo and Traps, and 1 to buy the Might spell after eating the hermit's heart.